Volunteers Help Kids Go Back to School at the MetroWest Free Medical Program

As summer winds down, kids are getting ready to go back to school. For parents, that means back-to-school shopping, filling out forms, and making sure their children have a school physical and the necessary vaccinations. If you are one of the thousands of families without health insurance and without access to a pediatrician in our state, that can be an overwhelming task.

To address this need, the MetroWest Free Medical Program hosts an annual Back to School Night. On August 21st, our volunteer team set up the clinic so we could check children’s height & weight, do vision exams, conduct the physical exams. We had all the paperwork that families needed for school and, thanks to our partners at the Framingham Health Department, we could even provide vaccinations on site to make sure all kids were protected from disease.

In just one clinic session, the volunteers of the MetroWest Free Medical Program made sure that 82 children were ready to start school this year. We’ve provided care to more than 125 children throughout the clinics in August and are now working to make sure that those families get connected to the follow-up care they need.

Thanks to our volunteers and partners like our hosts at Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury Valley who make this important work possible. From all of us at the MetroWest Free Medical Program, we wish you a wonderful school year!